When a school intervention doesn’t have the desired impact you were hoping for, it can make you want to pack up your laptop and head for the hills! The why behind the intervention is known (let’s say you want to target inference skills), but how do you track the child’s progress? We share how to see the bigger picture for school interventions, focusing on tracking progress and the next steps.
Why is intervention impact data so important?
Too many interventions are stand-alone and untrackable. But what is the point of running an intervention group without evidence of impact? Data helps teachers to know the direction to take the interventions. You can stop, adjust, or continue with an intervention.
Top tip: not all interventions need tangible, markable evidence. For some interventions, the proof is in the pudding (or the independent writing)!
Data is useful to clearly show impact. We can often forget the importance data has across pupils, parents and teachers.
- Pupils benefit from seeing their own progress and celebrating their effort and personal achievements.
- Parents should be kept in the loop about the targets being addressed by seeing progress and knowing their child’s next steps.
- Teachers can use data to direct their planning and delivery. For example, you may run a group report in MARK, and it's highlighted a whole-class weakness with subtracting fractions, helping to direct your delivery and planning pitch.
- Transition meetings are vital for sharing important assessment information about children. Purposeful data can help a new teacher get interventions ready without delay.
- Assessment leads can use data to help monitor interventions and measure progress easily.
6 steps to make the most of your intervention process:
1. It all starts with assessment: We don’t have time in the academic year to feel around in the dark. Identify children’s strengths, progress and areas for development each term to know what the intervention focus should be.
2. One approach for all: Every year group will be busy running interventions across the core subjects. By choosing a complete intervention programme, such as Shine, progress is easier to monitor and measure.
3. Let a data programme do the hard work: Using a tool to create intervention groups based on pupil knowledge decreases your workload. Children then receive intervention at the earliest opportunity, and there is a reduction in admin for teachers! Phew!
4. Support your staff: We aren’t all experts in every topic in the primary curriculum, but secure teacher knowledge for interventions is essential.
5. Is it age-appropriate? There is no time to waste in the school day, and every intervention counts. Teaching units that are tailored to the age and need of the child guarantee that it has not been covered before.
6. Know your weaknesses and strengths. Want to get ahead? Track progress and performance indicators both from the previous year and the current year, allowing you to think about the next half-term or even next year. Most reporting programmes out there are limited to the Summer term. However, MARK tracks children across all terms from Autumn: